


Artistic Expression

by enbyred



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Agreste Brothers AU, Felix doesn't hate everyone, Fluff, Nath makes a friend, Open ended, Shy, They're both a little over the top but that's ok, artist, dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-17
Updated: 2018-06-17
Packaged: 2019-05-24 14:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,434
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14956688
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/enbyred/pseuds/enbyred
Summary: Nathanael's hit an art block. He finds a new source of inspiration, but it happens to be Adrien's unsociable older brother.





	Artistic Expression

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Twin AU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/389603) by Edorazzi. 



An artist could only draw the same four things so many times. Nathanael was happy to work on his new Ladybug comic, but drawing Ladybug and Chat Noir and Akumas with the same butterfly symbol in front of their faces got repetitive and stifled his creativity. He tried to branch out, draw the bird that landed on the window sill during Ms. Mendeliev’s tirade about not taking physics seriously, draw his classmates, draw any original character he could come up with. But there was only so much he could do when his classmates were all focused on the lesson when he drew them (and he was at the back of the classroom. He could only draw the backs of people’s heads so many times). Nath needed something new to draw. Some _ one _ new to draw? He needed inspiration. Some way to get his muse back.

His muse temporarily gone, Nath was thoroughly discouraged. His eyes wandered around the school, to people and things, looking for anything to draw. Everything was dull. Colors weren’t as bright, nothing was interesting, and nothing begged to be drawn the way it used to. He kept his eye on Chloe; sometimes she would bring an expensive piece of jewelry or some other accessory to show off to Sabrina. Yet there was nothing. All he wanted was to snap out of this funk and draw again.

After school one day, he left his locker and was about to begin walking home when something caught his eye. At first, he thought it was Adrien, and he’d simply grown a few inches when Nathanael wasn’t paying attention. But when he turned and looked at the boy, he realized that he wasn’t in his class. The tall, thin blond with piercing green eyes had a grimace on his face that said he just wanted to be left alone. He dressed semi-formally in varying shades of black and grey and had his school bag slung casually over his shoulder, though it looked too heavy to be slung like that. He watched as students filed out of the building, and as his eyes scanned the crowd, they met Nathanael’s gaze. When the boy narrowed his eyes, Nath took it as his cue to leave. It wasn’t unusual for people to catch him staring, but it was normally people he knew, and they understood how his artistic mind worked.

As he sketched the boy as well as he remembered instead of doing physics homework that night, he knew that he would have to find out who he was. He needed a proper drawing.

- - -

“You mean Felix?” Rose asked, as though Nath would have the answer. He could only shrug in response. “He’s the year above us--he’s Adrien’s brother!” Nath didn’t even know that Adrien  _ had _ a brother. Rose waved Adrien over and Marinette visibly pouted as he came to talk to them. 

“Morning,” Adrien greeted them, leaning against Nathanael’s desk.

Rose grinned. “Morning. Nath has a crush on Felix. He wants to know if you can introduce them.”

Feeling his face begin to match his hair in hue, Nath waved his hands in denial. “No, that’s not it! I just saw him yesterday--he was  _ interesting _ , and I wanted to draw him,  _ that’s _ why I want someone to introduce me to him!” He knew that no one would believe such an excuse, even if it was half of the truth.

Adrien assessed him for a moment before smiling and saying, “Sure, I could introduce you. Be warned, he’s...standoffish. But he’s an artist too, in a different sense. I think he’d be willing to let you draw him.”

In a different sense? Nath wondered what kind of artist he was. Maybe they had something in common.

- - -

When lunch came around, instead of going right home, Adrien took Nathanael to meet Felix. Nath held his sketchbook tightly, pencil tucked behind his ear. He had never met someone just to draw them. Was this weird? Did artists do this unprompted? Had anyone ever asked to draw Felix before? Questions raced through his mind as he followed Adrien to meet the mysterious boy from the day before.

“Felix!” Adrien called, waving to get his brother’s attention.While extracting things from his locker, Felix’s eyes shifted, and he visibly sighed when he saw them.. He closed his locker, waiting for them to reach him.

“Felix, this is my classmate Nathanael.” Adrien grinned and explained, “Nath is an artist. He saw you yesterday and wanted to meet you.”

Nath offered a shy smile and held out his hand. Felix watched him for a moment before accepting the handshake.

“So you were the one staring yesterday,” he said bluntly. Nath hoped he wasn't blushing. “'Artist’ is a much better explanation than 'stalker.’ One is enough.”

Nodding, Nath admitted, “Yes, I...I thought that you looked interesting.  _ Different _ . I was just, uh... wondering if you would be okay with me drawing you?” The words stumbled awkwardly out of his mouth. He wasn't sure he  _ didn't  _ sound creepy, but at least he had asked.

After a moment more of Felix looking him over, he nodded. “I don't mind. I have little time to spare, though, so if you’re available now and don't mind drawing a moving target, you can join me.”

He began walking immediately, not giving a chance for Nath to reply, so he trotted after Felix and gave Adrien a feeble wave. And of course, Adrien winked and gave him a thumbs-up. Adrien was likely happy to set Nathanael up with anyone that wasn't Marinette. While he appreciated the introduction, he wanted to tell Adrien to just ask Mari out already. It would solve a lot of problems.

“Where are we going?” Nath gained the courage to ask. Felix hadn't spoken a word to him or even checked to see if he was following.

“A practice room,” Felix replied. “I nearly always go during the lunch period. It's not worth it to go home when I could bring my lunch and practice for the rest of the time.”

Still not sure what Felix would be practicing, he elected to just go along with it. He would find out soon enough.

Felix opened the door to a practice room, empty save for a set of speakers. He turned and said, “I need to get changed. Give me a second,” and closed the door. Nath flipped through his sketches of Ladybug and Chat Noir, the occasional drawing of Alix or Mylene, until he found a blank page, opposite the sketches he had done the previous night.

The door opened once more, making Nath jump. Felix, now dressed in leggings and a tee shirt with ballet shoes, poked his head out, and his light eyes fell on the sketchbook. He nodded approvingly. “You’re good. My hair isn’t as wavy as Adrien’s, though. Come on in.”

Nath stepped back into what he now realized was a dance room and sat on the floor while Felix plugged his phone into the speakers. A slow piano piece began playing and he stepped into the center of the room, going through stretches and warmups. He hadn’t even started dancing yet and Nathanael found himself unable to stop watching Felix. His movements were so fluid, yet calculated and precise. It was fascinating to watch.

As the song ended, Felix came back to first position and returned to his phone to flip through songs. Nath waited a moment before choosing to make conversation.

“How long have you been dancing?” he asked, hoping that he wouldn’t mind conversation.

Felix thought for a moment. “I’d say five years. My parents decided that Adrien and I needed to be involved in sports. I requested to learn ballet, so they signed Adrien up with me. He didn’t like it and started looking for something he would like better. He found fencing three years ago.” He scrolled through songs for a moment more before selecting a playlist and returning to the center of the room. “How long have you been drawing?”

Nathanael didn’t entirely expect Felix to take any interest in him. He considered, trying to remember the first time he’d picked up a pencil and really  _ tried _ (because he could easily say he’d been drawing since the first time he picked up a crayon as a toddler, but everyone started there).

“It was probably eight years ago that I stopped drawing stick figures and started developing my skills. I’m learning more every day.”

Felix nodded and assumed first position, closing his eyes as he said, “Me too.” The piece began and his arms came up slowly. As they fell again, he started tracing half circles on the floor with his feet as he stepped backwards. Nathanael was glad that he had the ability to mentally capture an image with moderate accuracy, and was able to pry his eyes away from Felix to let his pencil start marking the page. The form and position of Felix’s body was never rigid, there was never a sharp angle. Even with toes pointed, limbs fully extended or completely bent, it looked soft, light, effortless. After dancing since he was ten or eleven, Nath could only assume it  _ was _ effortless for him.

The light in the room was harshly bright, but Felix seemed to have the inherent ability to soften it. All sharpness had melted away. Adrien had described him as standoffish, but it was clear now that it was a mask. If deemed worthy to be let into Felix’s private world, one would see him easily shed the aggressiveness and reveal how soft he was underneath. As a fine artist, Nath understood how difficult it could be to share art with someone, as art for oneself is the purest form of self expression, of baring one’s own soul. Dance wasn’t an art form with which Nath could claim he was familiar, but he did know that having been invited to watch Felix dance was an expression of acceptance and blind trust. Both were expressing themselves to each other in relative silence. It was rare to be able to get to know a person without a word exchanged. Nath was elated that the boy who was so interesting was allowing him to begin understanding him without even speaking. He hoped that this was an open door to a deeper friendship.

He wasn’t sure if it was for ten minutes or an hour that Felix danced. When the music ended, he came back to first position, chest rising and falling heavily, beads of sweat dripping down his face. Nathanael gazed down at what his hand had created upon the page. A messy sketch of Felix in the middle of a turn, up on his toes, one leg off the floor and bent in toward himself. His arms were rounded in front of him, head turned to the side and intense eyes fixed on a point to help himself keep balance. The drawing certainly needed some cleaning up, but he could do that later. He was just happy to have done the slightest justice to the feelings that had been conveyed in the dance, radiating through Felix’s being.

After grabbing a water bottle, the blond came to sit on the floor next to Nath. He drank and looked over the sketch, nodding approvingly.

“You’re an excellent artist, Nathanael.” He pointed to the hair. “The way you drew my hair blowing to the side is a nice touch--you can tell which way I’m spinning with that.”

Nodding, quietly ecstatic that Felix liked his drawing, he pointed to the right hand and said, “I just didn’t get the shape of your ring. Can I see it?”

Felix held his right hand out for Nath, who glanced at it before adding the angles onto the drawing to give it the catlike shape. “A nod to Chat Noir?” he asked. “Or you just like cats?”

Considering his answer for a moment, Felix replied, “Both, I suppose. I had it before Chat Noir showed up, but I can’t say that it’s not for our hero anymore. I admire what he and Ladybug do for Paris.” That seemed to be the only thing he wished to say on the topic.

Nath held the drawing at arm’s length to better see it as a whole. As messy as it still was, he was happy to have gotten a full drawing of Felix, even as he had been moving around the room. He would clean up the lines and add emphasis to the shadows before school tomorrow, and show it to Felix again then.

Looking at his phone for the time, Felix stood and said, “Classes start again in fifteen minutes. You should go eat.” Nath scrambled to his feet and closed his sketchbook. Felix held out a hand. “Thank you for drawing me. I can say that I’m impressed.”

Nath shook Felix’s hand and replied, “Thank you for  _ letting _ me. And for letting me watch you. I’ve never seen anything like the way you dance. It’s like you paint with your body.”

The corner of Felix’s mouth twitched up in what was almost a smile. “Dance is how I express myself best, and I can see that drawing is how you express yourself. I’m glad we could share this.”

Felix was about to turn away to collect his things when Nath blurted out, “Will you teach me to dance?” Felix stopped and looked at him, eyes wide, while Nath attempted to stumble through any sort of explanation. “It’s just--I love art of any kind. You--I mean, your dancing is--I didn’t know ballet could look like that, and…. I’d love to learn another art form. And...and I know that I could take formal lessons, but...would you be willing to have a student?” He shyly awaited Felix’s answer, hiding behind his hair.

After a few seconds that Felix took to process, he gave the slightest nod. “I suppose I wouldn’t mind you joining me more often. And they say one of the best ways to learn is to teach.” Putting his button-up on over his tee, he instructed, “Be here at the same time tomorrow. Wear something easy to move in. Now go eat lunch before you starve.”

As if on cue, Nath’s stomach grumbled. He grinned and thanked Felix profusely before running out of the practice room and to his locker. He could get by on an energy bar for the rest of the afternoon. An energy bar, and the excitement he got from knowing that his dance classes with Felix started tomorrow.

**Author's Note:**

> @Edorazzi on Tumblr has a wonderful headcanon that Felix does ballet with Nath. She's also got some fantastic AUs and you should definitely check her out.


End file.
